Conditioner for air line respirators



1935. F. WILLSON ET AL 2,010,424

CONDITIONER FOR AIRLINE RESPIRATORS Filed Nov. 21, 1932 3nnentow fieczerick M I/Kscm and 7 attorney Patented Aug. 6, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CONDITIONER FOR AIR LINE RESPIRATORS Frederick Willson, Bern Township, Berks County,

Application November 21, 1932, Serial No. 643,630

5 Claims.

This invention relates to protective equipment and particularly to an improved air conditioner particularly adapted for use with air line respirators in which air is supplied under 5 pressure to the respirator.

It is desirable when air is supplied under pressure to a Workers respirator to purify the air and to remove as much as possible therefrom traces of vapor or fluids, such as water and oil, which enter the air line incidental to the use of a compressor.

One object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioner for purifying the air supplied under pressure to a respirator.

Another object of the invention is to make the conditioner parts interchangeably usable for a conditioner located anywhere in the pressure air line.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description and appended claims when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which:

. The drawing is a longitudinal sectional view of an air conditioner assembled for intermediate location in the air line.

The drawing indicates an air conditioner assembled for use in a pressure air line intermediate the source of air pressure and a usual opposite-end respirator mask, and as shown the air conditioner l2 comprises a casing consisting, for example, of a pair of interengageable screw caps l3 and a pair of substantially hemispherical end members l4 provided with nipples l5 and I6 respectively disposed above and below the center of the related end member and at an angular inclination to the axis of the casing, and constituting an outlet and an inlet adapted to be connected to the air line I l. The end walls of caps l3 are apertured so that the hemi-spherical portions of the end members 84 project through the ends of the screw caps and each end member is provided with a peripheral fiat flange I! held against the peripheral rim of the end wall of the related cap by the end of a sleeve l8 constituting an enclosure for any desirable type of filtering material 20 such as suitably treated cotton, or by the ends of a unitary filter cartridge of a suitable type.

Between the sleeve l8 or filter cartridge and the end member M at the inlet end of the air conditioner is a substantially hemispherical baffle plate 2| having a peripheral flange l9 engaged between the end of sleeve l8 and the flange ll of the end member for securing the baflle in spaced place. The hemi-spherical surface of baille plate 2| is opposed to the inlet nipple It so that air forced under pressure into the air conditioner impinges against the baille plate.

The baffle plate is provided with a plurality of circularly arranged apertures 22 adjacent the peripheral edge of its hemi-spherical portion, through which the air is diverted to pass to the filter cartridge or filtering material 2&3 adjacent the outer part thereof. As shown in the drawing, portions 23 of the baiile plate adjacent the apertures 22 are formed with hoods to extend outwardly at an angle relatively to the hemispherical surface of the plate so that they form secondary baiiles about which the air flows to pass through the apertures instead of being blown directly therethrough. Thus, the concentrated stream of air entering the air conditioner I 2 under pressure is broken up by impinging against bafiie plate El and caused to flow substantially uniformly through the filtering material 2i and is prevented from channelling a passageway through the filtering material in such manner as so to render the latter ineiiective to purify the air supplied to the respirator. At its lower side the inlet member i l is provided with a small aperture 24 forming a drain for vapors and/or fluids, such as oil or water, condensed out of the air stream by impingement on baffie plate 2|.

The conditioner l2, as shown, it will be noted is assembled from complementary parts adaptable for assembly in other connection but for similar use, and it will be further noted that the members M, as mounted, are capable of rotation before the tight screwing together of the complementary screw caps l3, so that the direction of projection of the nipples l and I 6 may be varied in accordance with the desired direction of extension therefrom of their air line connections.

Although an illustrative embodiment of the invention has been described in detail, there are many changes and variations which may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and, therefore, it is desired to include all such changes and variations within the scope of the appended claims.

What we claim is:

1. An air conditioner for air line respirators comprising a casing having an inlet and an outlet; filtering material located in said casing between said inlet and outlet; an air line connected to a source of air under pressure and to said inlet; and a convex baflle plate disposed in said casing opposite said inlet for preventing air forced into said casing under pressure from channelling said filter material, said bafiie being provided with a plurality of apertures for the passage of air through said bafiie to said filtering material; and a plurality of secondary baffles extending from said baiile plate adjacent the apertures therein.

2. An air conditioner for air line respirators, comprising a cartridge of filtering material, a cylindrical cartridge holding chamber formed by a pair of complementary end-apertured screw caps each having a flat peripheral end wall encircling its end aperture, a closure member for one cap end aperture clampingly held by the flat peripheral end wall of its respective screw cap and having an air outlet, a closure member for the other screw cap having an adjustably rotatable hemispherical portion projecting outwardly through said cap end aperture and having a p ripheral flat rim portion adapted to be clampingly engaged by the fiat peripheral end wall of its respective screw cap, and an air line connection inlet projecting outwardly from the hemi-spherical projecting portion of said closure member, and eccentrically and angularly disposed relatively to the axis of said chamber.

3. An air conditioner for air line respirators, comprising a cylindrical chamber formed by a pair of complementary end-apertured screw caps each having a flat peripheral end wall encircling its end aperture, a closure member for one cap end aperture clampingly held by the flat peripheral end wall of its respective screw cap and having an air outlet, a closure member for the other screw cap having a harm-spherical portion projecting outwardly through said cap end aperture and having a peripheral fiat rim portion clampingly engageable with the flat peripheral end wall or" its respective screw cap, a baiile plate having a hemi-spherical portion provided with hooded air apertures and spacedly projected into the helm-spherical portion of said end closure and a fiat rim portion adapted to be clampingly engaged against the inner surface of the peripheral rim portion of said closure by engagement against the outer urface of the latter of the peripheral end wall of its respective screw cap,

and an air line connection inlet in the hemispherical projecting portion of said closure member communicating with the space between said baffle and closure projections.

l. An air line conditioner for air line respirators, comprising a cylindrical chamber formed by a pair of complementary end-apertured screw caps each having a flat peripheral end wall encircling its end aperture, similar closure members for said cap end apertures each having a hemi" spherical portion projecting through its respective cap end aperture and having a flat peripheral rim clampingly engageable with said peripheral cap end wall and encircling said projecting closure portion, similar air line connections in the projecting portions of the respective closures each disposed at an angular inclination relative to the axis of said chamber and forming respectively an air inlet and an air outlet to the latter, and a bafiie interposed between said chamber and the end closure member having the air line inlet connection, said baiiie having a peripheral flat rim and adjacent hooded air apertures, and said baflie rim and its respective closure rim being jointly secured by the peripheral end wall of its respective screw cap.

5. An air line conditioner for air line respirators, comprising a cartridge of filtering material, a cylindrical cartridge holding chamber formed by a pair of complementary end-apertured screw caps each having a fiat peripheral end wall encircling its end aperture, similar closure members for said cap end apertures each having an adjustably rotatable hemi-spherical portion projecting outwardly through its respective cap end aperture and having a flat peripheral rim clampingly engageable with said peripheral cap end wall and encircling said projecting closure portion, and similar air line connections extending outwardly from the projecting portions of their respective closures each eccentrically and angularly disposed relative to the axis or" said chamber and forming respectively an air inlet and an air outlet to the latter, said inlet and outlet connections being fixedly held in set position by the clamping action of said screw caps.

FREDERICK WILLSON. HARRY F. SHINDEL. 

